Why Not

This morning we thought we should wander around the neighbourhood a little. We loaded the muttski’s in the truck and headed south for the Organ Pipe National Monument.

Ajo Mountains

Thought we better give it a look see before Donald Trump turned it into Walmart distribution centre or something. It bumps up against the Mexican border and just across the border the Mexican government has a couple more of these protected areas creating a pretty good sized biosphere. We poked around in the Visitor Centre but passed up on the 21 miles drive through the heart of the monument, we did that back in 2008 and I am sure not much has changed since then. We had to cross through a Border Patrol checkpoint but it was pretty relaxed, just a couple of young fellows wishing us a good day and waving us on through. In the past here at Gunsight Wash we were struck by the frequency of the Border Patrol vehicles roaming around but today was the first time we have seen any in the area. Not sure what that means either folks are not coming this way or maybe they are just not coming anymore.

We stopped in at the Why Not Travel Store to see if they had any potatoes but just chips, not much else there when it came to groceries. But they do have some beautiful murals there. And then it was back to Dogpound Anywhere to while away the afternoon.

Ajo

It was a windy, but sunny day down here at Gunsight Wash today.  Temps in the mid teens Celsius I guess around 50F, but the wind made it seem much cooler. We just hung out in camp for the most part although I did run into Ajo to mail some Christmas cards and pick up a little BBQ sauce for our country style ribs. Not sure why they call them that, though they were good, there were no ribs to be found anywhere in them.

I had took a couple of shots of two of the murals that are around Ajo, there are many more.

 And then stopped for a visit at the mine pit museum. The fellow/historian who was there reminded me of my Dad, he had a story for every picture in the place and was one of those fellows who probably was pretty good at filling in the blanks when the record was a little short on details. He made it almost sound exciting to work at the bottom of that big hole in the dead of summer when it was about 160F down in the pit. Not sure at those temps if you need to smelt the ore to get the copper out, or if it just runs out and you ladle it into buckets.

A couple of visits today from our friends from the Air Force, but nobody right down on the deck pretending to shoot us up. Got a couple of responses from Al and Ivan about boondocking near Bisbee and it seems that is not as easy as it sounds. We might just have to stay a little farther afield and just make day trips down into that country. The Queen Mine RV Park in Bisbee apparently has a low bridge to go under to get into and Dogpound Anywhere is not exactly a low bridge kind of rig, but we will figure out something.